Various styles and types of lunch totes are commercially available today. Lunch totes are carrying devices designed to temporarily transport and store food items, especially lunch food. Lunch containers, lunch boxes, lunch pails or lunch kits are various terms used to describe similar food storage containers that can be easily transported. School children, working adults, fishermen, sport enthusiasts, people on a picnic or outing, etc. normally pack a lunch tote. A lunch tote is usually packed with food items for a single individual. Common food items include a sandwich, a thermos or a drink container, such as a bottle of water, a can containing pop or soda, a juice box, one or more kinds of fruit, a container housing a vegetable, and snacks, such as chips, cookies, candy, etc. One disadvantage with most lunch totes today is that they are formed from a rigid material. Most lunch totes are formed out of a thin metal, aluminum or plastic and are not designed to be washed in a conventional home washing machine. Because such lunch totes cannot be thoroughly cleaned, odor causing bacteria can build up in the seams and crevices. A second disadvantage is that most lunch totes are not machine dryable. Their construction does not permit them to be placed in a conventional home dryer and be dried after being machine washed.
Some lunch totes are constructed from a washable fabric. However, these forms of lunch containers suffer from some other shortfalls. Some are very flexible and therefore they are not rigid enough to stand upright by themselves or rigid enough to keep the various food items from contacting one another. If a sandwich is contacted by a can of soda, the sandwich is most likely going to get squished. Likewise, if an apple or peach is allowed to bang against a thermos, the fruit is sure to get bruised. Another disadvantage is that many of the flexible lunch containers are not designed to accommodate an ice cube pack or a chemical ice pack. Normally, the ice pack is inserted into the lunch tote first and then the food is introduced or the ice pack is placed in last, after the food items have been placed into the lunch tote. Either process causes the food items located adjacent to the ice pack to stay cold while the food items located away from the ice pack get warm. In addition, as the ice pack thaws, condensation forms, causing the surrounding food and the inside of the lunch tote to become wet. Another disadvantage is that there is no way to retain the ice pack in a desired position while the lunch tote is being carried or stored in a locker. This means that some of the food items may start to spoil before they are consumed.
Still another disadvantage of most lunch totes is that they do not provide a serving tray which can be used to keep the food items clean. Some lunch totes do provide a flat mat to eat on but this allows the food to slide or roll off onto a public use surface. If the food items are removed from the lunch container and placed on a dirty tabletop, the food items can become contaminated. Many times, there is no clean surface present on which to place the food items removed from the lunch container. Many public use surfaces, such as a cafeteria table or picnic table, do not provide a clean surface from which to consume one's lunch. As can be seen, there is a need for an improved lunch tote that provides a safe and sanitary eating surface.
Now a lunch tote has been invented which satisfies the above drawbacks with conventional lunch containers.